WAITING FOR THE PLANE TO LAND
When we boarded the plane, we never expected our journey to take the turn it took. In fact, we landed at the same airport we took off from only a few moments after we were airborne.
The plane landed and they told about half of us to get off the plane. We got off the plane and were taken to a the Baggage Claim area where we stayed for an untold number of days.
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| Baggage Claim |
The baggage carriers were not operating, in fact they were completely empty. We had no luggage, and there was no one to ask where or why. Somehow we knew we had to stay there. In fact, most of us wanted to stay there because we were related in some way to the others who were still on the plane.
My brother and I had never traveled by air together. It was a treat to spend some different time with him. My son accompanied us. There were a few others on the plane and in the Holding Area that I knew as well. Where were we going? Why were we going?
We had all that we need in terms of food and drink. It seemed to magically be there, but we never saw our server. We could eat whatever we wanted or wished for. Some of us drank hard liquor and that was provided. Some of us liked sweet smooth wines.
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| Food Court |
There was entertainment… not broadcast over the Media Center posted on the walls. We were our entertainment. We waited and waited and wondered how everybody else was doing. We also would ask this question over and over again.
"How long do you think they will keep them on the plane flying around in the air? When are they gonna land the plane and let the people off?"
At first we didn't realize that it would take days and days and more days. We assumed that it would just be a minute or so.
But we did have questions.
"Why did they tell some of us to get off and the rest of us had to stay on the plane? It didn't necessarily feel like they were any special than anyone else, it seemed so random a choice, like this side of the plane stays and this side of the plane goes.
We would talk among ourselves about the selection process. We came to the general consensus that there was no selection process and that the selection was basically random.
We discarded the idea of them being any more special than we were, especially since we did not know where they were headed, but we also knew that none of us were going anywhere we had intended to go.
Maybe we were all selected. Maybe we were all given the opportunity to travel to a certain destination, a destination that we could not remember, and then those who were told to stay on the plane stayed on the plane and those who were told to disembark, got off.
The fact that we got off didn't make us feel very special either. We got off but we couldn't leave the airport. We had to stay there. Somehow we knew that, though there was no one there telling us we had to. We just knew it. In fact, we seldom got the desire to try to escape.
"Are we hostages?
"Why are we waiting here?"
A couple of arguments broke out after a while.
People began to get a bit impatient with each other. We seemed to regress in age. Even the elders among us began to laugh and play and act silly. Others began to be the meanest people. We had never known them to be mean in the past. But overall, we just waited for the plane to land.
When it flew over the airport we could hear its engines coming closer then fading away in the distance, but not too far. We knew that it was circling and we talked to each other about how lucky we were, at least we could get up and walk around. They were stuck on a half empty plane.
As the days wore on we began to miss them, more and more. In fact, we would talk to them and interact with them.
"How did we do that?"
We did that because they were there with us. All of them.
Yet, we knew they were on the plane and that was the reason we were waiting for them in the Holding Area.
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| Holding Area |
The days wore on and Henry was really really not liking this situation. In his drunken mind, he began to believe that he could leave. We felt sorry for Henry, he was obviously delusional. Nobody could leave, and we all knew that except Henry.
He kept whining and complaining. "I want to leave and I am going to leave and none of you, none of you are gonna stop me!!"
He certainly had had too much to drink that day. No one was leaving, we had to wait for the others to land and get off the plane.
The area of the food court was huge but only one vendor was open. All of the other vendors seemed to have vacated. The food court was maintained with a surprising cleanliness, even though we never saw who cleaned it. We really didn't care, we didn't have to clean it. And we could eat whatever we wanted in as big or as small a quantity we chose.
From time to time our thoughts would travel to those still on board the plane.
"I wonder if they are eating, sleeping?"
"Of course they are. Why would they not feed them and give them a place to sleep when they have done that for us? We are not hostages. We are just waiting for the plane to land."
Every once in a while a person would speak up with great authority. We did not counter their position, we agreed. It simply made sense that we couldn't possibly be hostages.
"Who would feed their hostages so well? Come on, it makes sense that we are waiting for the plane to land."
"Yeah, yeah, that's right, we are waiting for the plane to land." We all responded ubiquitously and went back doing whatever we were doing.
We created games.
We had nothing to play with so we played with each other.
We had nothing to read, and nothing to do, so we played with each other. Some of us made up jokes, we laughed so hard we had to hold ourselves and wipe our tears. We told ghost stories. They almost did work for us, except that it never got dark enough to be scary in the Holding Area. So we listened intently to the stories and closed our eyes to mimic darkness. We really didn't have a great scary story storyteller anyway. It was just us, no special celebrities or stand up comics. We listened to be polite, we laughed to be polite too, but there really wasn't anything else to do.
We would get the urge to run through the Holding Area, but we knew we couldn't leave the area, except to go to the Food Court. We all just knew that so we just played in the baggage claim area, which was pretty large for the most part. We were at a very, very large airport and the baggage claim area was very, very spacious.
We spent more time playing with each other, entertaining each other, while we waited for the plane to land.
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| Rose, the Black Beauty |
I played with Rose. She was a slender velvety black young lady. I wanted to do more than just play with her. I wanted to touch her skin to see how smooth and soft it was. It glistened in the light. Her smile was engagingly beautiful with big white teeth! Rose was always giggling and I wondered if she was ticklish. I walk over to her and say a few funny things about her skin and her short cropped hair and she giggles some more. She was always giggling about something, her laughter was contagious, it made us forget we were still waiting for the plane to land. She let me touch her skin. I gasped at the smoothness of it. I didn't want to give myself away so I just pretended to wrestle with her and rubbed her down or gently tickle her belly. She didn't have on much clothing. She had no shame either. She had on a white bra and panties. Maybe because we had no luggage.
People began to discard their garments. She practically took all of hers off.
Our clothing began to show signs of wear. They fed us and gave us rooms to sleep in but no washers and no dryers and no place to really wash and hang any of our clothing up. In fact, we didn't wash our bodies. We just waited for the plane to land.
John was a blue-eyed blond hair Caucasian gentleman. He was on the plane. He was with us in theHolding Area. We talked to him and asked him how they were doing on the plane and he said,
"I just want this to be over. I am tired of wearing the same clothes day in and day out. I don't know why they just won't land the plane, it's right here at the airport. We haven't flown out to sea or over some wooded area or a mountain or anywhere, where we can't land! We want to know how long this is going to take, but no one has any answers."
Henry says, "Yeah. Man, nobody got no answers and we still here!!!!" Henry was an older African American man. He was balding at the top of his head and about 5'4" tall. His blue pants hung loosely over his black shoes.
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| Henry |
"It don't make no sense! I wish they had let me stay on the plane, at least I would be moving around going somewhere."
"Man, we ain't going nowhere. We are going around in circles, around and around. That is not going anywhere!" John retorted.
Henry was not convinced.
Back to tickling Rose, there really wasn't much else to do, and since that was very pleasurable and she didn't seem to mind we did that a lot.
Later, I go upstairs. There were several bedrooms with bunk beds in them and that is where we slept. Walking down the hallway, I peep into one of he bedrooms and see Henry. He is in one of the bedrooms talking to an elderly African American woman. She seemed to spend most of her time waiting in the bed for the plane to land. We didn't know much about her since she hardly ever mingled with us. She wasn't mean, she just seemed tired all the time. Henry was bothering her again.
"Get up, ole lady!! How long you gonna sleep in that bed?" he yelled.
"I'll get you out of there. I'll get you out of the bed!" he yells some more.
He obviously shared the room with her. She was on the bottom bunk.
He pulls a small steak knife from his pocket and digs into his mattress in an attempt to alarm her enough to make her get up.
"Get up! Get up!" he cries out.
She obviously ignores him and I continue on my journey.
Back in the baggage claim area I go back to playing with Rose. I was totally enjoying romping around with her on her mattress she had brought from her room. She was rather agile. She'd twist and bent her body in such a manner, we wondered if she was a contortionist.
"No, I just like doing this stuff." she giggled.
Some one sounded an alarm.
"Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire!
We scamper around, now what do we do?? The place is on fire? Where?? Where???
"Upstairs, upstairs in the second bedroom!"
There were four bedrooms on each floor.
"What floor??"
"Second floor!!!"
Everybody didn't run upstairs. Most of us just waited for the plane to land. Some of us ran upstairs to put the fire out. We certainly did not need a mattress which is extremely flammable to catch fire. By the time I got upstairs, they had put the fire out. I looked into the rooms to see the damage. There was a lot of water damage, all the way down the hall to the fourth bedroom, but there was little damage from fire. Even the second bedroom had escaped the brunt of the flames. I assumed they acted quickly to contain the fire. The beds were soaked and the walls were too. The first bedroom had stuff strewn all over the floor. I found that interesting, because I didn't know any of us had any "stuff" we were just all waiting for the plane to land. Well, maybe they had stuff in their pockets or pocketbooks, cause we were also waiting for our luggage that never came down the gurney in the baggage claim area.
Then I noticed something sparkling on the floor near the bottom bunk bed in the second bedroom, it was the knife that Henry had earlier. Henry started the fire, I knew it was him, I saw him with that knife earlier.
When I get downstairs, I intend to let everyone know, Henry Started the Fire!!!
"Henry started the Fire!! I yell out. "I know he did, here is the knife he had earlier, I saw him with it!"
Everyone turns and looks at Henry…
"What you trying to do, man??"
"You so drunk, you want to burn the place down?"
"How is that gonna help anything, Henry?"
"I wanna get outa here! You all can sit and wait for the plane to land, but I wanna get outa here. That plane ain't never gonna land! We will be here forever waiting on that plane! I say we go home! I say right now!"
We all know that Henry has completely lost it. He has been belly-aching about "getting outa here" for too many days, and we still here. When will he understand, we are waiting for the plane to land, and as soon as it does we will be able to leave.
John, who is on the plane walks over to Henry and says,
"I understand your frustration, Henry, we want the plane to land too. We ain't getting no answers about anything, not anything at all. In fact, there is no one to ask… Do you have someone that you can ask? Because if you do, I would like to ask that question myself."
"No!!!! I ain't got nobody to ask! Are you crazy, man?? Look around, do you see somebody to ask?"
"Well, Henry, that means we have to wait, but trying to burn the place down is not a good idea. You know that right?"
"Yeah, I know that, but I still want to get outa here, and it ain't happening fast enough! This is bullshit and I am sick of it!"
We all go back to playing… There really is nothing else left to do, nothing at all.
My son is on the plane. He is staying in the bedroom on the first floor down the hall. I walk down the hall to talk to him. From what I hear there are mostly women on the plane. I ask him,
"How's it going on that plane? I know you are in fun heaven with all them cackling ladies on board." I giggle.
"Humph, you know I don't like but a few women, here and there, a whole bunch of women is too much for me, and they are cackling. When we gonna land, when we gonna land, when we gonna land??? I mean, how many times can one question be asked? Obviously, there is no answer for that question as they have not gotten one, and asking it a hundred times is not gonna make the answer come any faster!!!!" He responds.
"Well, what is it like on the plane?"
"Oh here we go, now you got the questions."
"I just wanted to know how you were doing and what it is like. The plane doesn't seem to be landing any time soon, just going around and around. I wonder how much distance it's covered so far. How is it refueling?"
"Oh boy, more questions. Listen, we don't know nothing about nothing about nothing. We could have traveled a thousand miles, 500 miles, who knows, we just know that when we look out the window we see this airport, but we never land, we just fly right over it, like what? Actually, it's a bit nerve wrecking. Imagine if you can, that you see the airport in the distance, we aren't too high up that we can't see it, but we fly over it and never land."
"I know you all ain't too high up, we can hear you fly over head. Over and over and over again. Wonder what's up with that? We have to wait in the baggage claim area for the plane to land. We are waiting for you all to land."
"Really, is that so. You are waiting for us to land? Well, let me tell you this, if it was going to land, it probably would have landed by now. Why it won't land we-don't-know! Who can we ask about that? We-don't-know! What is the purpose for this? We-don't-know! I tell you what, when you find out, you let me know and I promise you, I will spread the word."
My beloved son, Daw'ud, always the sarcastic smart ass.
I leave him and walk down the hallway.
Then, I am struck by the most amazing thought! I hadn't had a thought like that all the time we were here, and that was so many days I can't even count them.
IF MY SON IS ON THE PLANE, THEN WHO WAS I JUST TALKING TOO? IN FACT, WHO ARE WE TALKING TO WHEN WE TALK TO JOHN? AND ROSE? AND MY BROTHER? AND A FEW OTHERS WHO ARE ON THE PLANE!!!!!
I turn back around and approach my son.
"I know you don't like me to ask a lot of questions, but if you are on the plane, then how are you here too? How can we communicate when you are flying I don't know how many feet in the air over my head in a plane that we are waiting for it to land. It hasn't landed so how did you get here?"
And just as I ask this last question I thrust my hand out towards him and my hand goes right through him. I quickly realize he is not solid, he is a hologram, and John must be too, along with Rose and the others. But that can't be possible, I remember rubbing Rose's skin. My hands didn't go through her body. Now my thoughts are reeling…
"Daw'ud, you are not down here with me, you are not even real, you are a
hologram, look, I can put my hand straight through you!"
"Of course you can, I am on the plane…. When were you gonna realize that? How long is it gonna take for any of you to realize that you are interacting with holograms?? This whole thing is not real, and you all are acting as if it is. And the one thing that should signal to you that it ain't real is the fact that "We-Are-On-The-Plane!!!!!! Sheesh. We need you all to realize that and then that damned plane can land!!!!!!"
"Oh wow, really??? Is that all we had to do? But how were we supposed to even think that you were holograms?"
"Um, Mom, by the fact that we are on a plane! You know, that plane that keeps flying overhead, around and around! That plane….. We need you all to realize that we are holograms!"
"Yeah, well, it ain't just us you silly man, you all need to realize that you ain't flying around on no plane either. You all come here interacting with us and talking to us, and you, my dear son, being a pain in the ass.. And you could have told us you were not real, but did you?? No, you just mock us and say we should have realized it."
"Oh boy, Mom, we can't do that!! You have to do that! You have to wake us up and let us know that we are not trapped on the plane that we can get off the plane any time we want that all we have to do is realize that and this whole thing would be over."
"But how would realizing that you can get off the plane and be a hologram make it all over?"
"Because we can all stop pretending this is real when it is not. But as long as you keep pretending it's real, we keep pretending it's real, you keep pretending it's real, we keep pretending it's real, forever and ever."
"Wait a minute, who's pretending?"
"You are, because you know, even more than we do that we are on the plane!!! If we are on the plane, how can we be down here with you? You know better than we do that this is not real because you have the proof!"
"Okay, if you say so. Sounds like a spell to me and I am gonna go downstairs and snap everybody out of it!"
"Yeah, you go do that, cause I am tired and I want to get off the plane."
"Um, you know what, you act like it is our fault that you are on the plane because we believed it by waiting and waiting for the plane to land. You want to put the weight of this madness on us, but if you are able to come down here and sit among us and know you are on the plane, doesn't that say something about your denial? Or shall I say, your complicity in playing along with this facade, this hoax, this spell, set-up or whatever you want to call it? It's a two way street buddy, somebody on either side has to cross over and turn on the lights!"
"Yeah, well, you crossed over, now go turn on the lights so this plane can land and we can get the hell off."
I am emboldened now!! I finally got the answer and I'm gonna tell everybody about it, I don't care who believes me or not. I am gonna break this ridiculous spell right now!!!!
I march into the baggage claim area prepared to make an announcement to all with ears to hear.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, hear me now!!! Them folks we been interacting with, who are on the plane but they are down here with us. Why didn't we ever think, "How is that possible for them to be in the air, on the plane, circling around the airport and down here too. How is that possible, John? Rose? And all the rest of you? Answer that question, how is that possible?
Henry, go over there and put your hand through John. Do it, do it right now!"
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| John |
"Lady, you is a crazy nut, how the hell, what the hell are you talking about, put my hand through John!" He says shaking his head in total disbelief. "Maybe you should stay off the sauce cause you trippin' now."
"What do you mean, put your hand through me, what are you talking about?" asks John.
John walks over to touch Henry, but Henry is so drunk he stumbles towards John and falls straight through him. John and Henry are so startled that they both gasp in utter disbelief.
"What?? What?? What???" Now everybody is saying what???? And looking around and trying it out with the others among us who are on the plane that we were all waiting for to land.
"You see, this exists because we believe it exists. It is because we want it to be, not because it is. The plane can only land when we realize that fact."
"What? You mean we been here all this time and that's all we had to do?"
"It's not that simple, I say, we would have to realize that it is virtually impossible for us to talk to and interact with the people on the plane and talk to them down here with us. The fact that we believed we were talking and interacting with them speaks to the extent of our ability to fool ourselves into believing something that cannot happen. It can only happen if we create it and that is what we did. We created their images as holograms so we could interact with them, and then we pretended they were real. We pretended they were real. Once we stop pretending then the plane can land and this can be over."
"I think it's a cruel trick. Why would we have the power to create this illusion, participate in it as if it is real and then not know it at all. Somewhere, somehow, someone pulled a veil over our eyes and we didn't see that what we saw is not what we were seeing but a figment of our imagination."
"Why are you blaming it on someone?" I ask.
"Because, there had to be another power, or entity that knew that about us. That we had that ability, even though we didn't know it they knew it and they never came forth and let us know we have our own selves trapped in this illusionary experience."
"But think about it. We must have known it and chose to deny it, because all the while, we always knew that they were on the plane, yet we acted like they were down here with us, and yet we are waiting for them to get off the plane. You see? We did this, by pretending we didn't realize that they could not be on the plane and with us at the same time. We had them here with us, we created them so that we would have something to do? Maybe? Or maybe because we felt guilty that we were chosen and they were not? Maybe because we missed them and didn't want to feel separated from them? Or maybe a host of other reasons I cannot think of right now. But we did that and they are the ones who are really waiting, waiting for us to realize that we created this and as soon as we realize that, the plane can land and they can get off."
"Well, that sounds like a bunch of gobbly gook to me, and I don't really care, I just wanna get outa here, this has gone on too long. What else do we have to do?"
"Nothing, look around, the passengers on the plane are no longer with us. We broke the spell, now let's go outside and greet the arrivals."
We drop everything and go directly outside, and sure enough, they are arriving. Each in their cars one by one.
My brother leads the line he is in the first car. He is very well dressed, clean and sparkling, with five small children in the car with him. His wife drives up in the car behind him because there was no room for her in the car with the children. Rose drives up after them, she has on a beautiful white flowing dress with ruffles lining the edge and a long curly wig.. Or maybe it's her hair.. She is smiling and I am overwhelmed with joy to see her. We hug but I get the sense she doesn't realize what happened. It seems that only a few on board and a few of us who were waiting have any clue about what just happened.
Charice is unpacking the back of her car.
"You know that the God is dying?"
"What do you mean the "God" is dying?"
"Yeah, he's dying. He had to pull one more last trick before he died. As long as you all didn't figure it out he could live, but once you figured it out, it's over, now he has to die."
"Well, what God was that?" I ask.
"The Sun God, the God of the Sun, or whatever you want to call him."
"You mean the Sun is dying?"
"No, not the Sun, the God of the Sun, he's dying. His days are done. Once you all figured out what happened, he had to let go. He knew it would eventually happen, he was dying anyway. But he thought he could get a little more time if you all went along with this one. Once you all started to realize that it was not real, he had to let the ones on the plane go. He had to let the plane land."
Charice is saying all this to me while she is unpacking the back of her car.
"Did you tell Elizabeth?" Charice asks.
"Um, no, I didn't tell her. She's new in Orisha and she probably wouldn't understand." I respond.
"Does she know what you did with yours?"
"No, I didn't tell her, she probably wouldn't understand that either."
